Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the patron saint of France. In her day, the English were allied with the Burgundians in a war against the rest of France. Joan was compelled by voices of her favorite saints to take up arms in defence of her country. Dressed in a suit of white armor, she led the French in battle against the English, who retreated, believing that she was in league with the devil. She continued to battle against the English, with dwindling support, until she was eventually captured and tried as a witch. She was found guilty and at the scaffold she pleaded guilty in exchange for a pardon from the Church. However, since the English had no intention of releasing her from prison, she quickly renounced her confession and resumed wearing men's clothing. For this they publicly burned her at the stake for witchcraft and heresy. The Church reversed its decision in 1455, and she was canonized in 1920.

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The Marian Franciscans, formally known as the Family of Mary Immaculate and St. Francis, voted to dissolve their community as of May 31.

“Despite growth in numbers and apostolic activity, it was not possible to secure the practical and canonical support needed for formation, sponsorship, and future priestly ordinations,” the friars said in a statement.

The community, whose priests offered the extraordinary form of the Latin Mass, had grown to 20 friars. Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, England, issued a decree confirming the dissolution.

The National Catholic Register reported that “following Pope Francis’ 2021 apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes, the community said diocesan authorization for celebrations of the traditional liturgy ‘became more restricted.’”

New Ways Ministry, which dissents from Catholic teaching on homosexuality, said that “queer voices emerged loud and proud in both their worship and their calls for reform” during Katholikentag (Catholic Day), the biennial German Catholic gathering first held in 1848.

During the gathering, which took place in Würzburg from May 13 to 17, “more than 200 people attended a queer worship service,” according to New Ways Ministry. Held inside the Order of Saint Augustine’s church, the service was “prepared by the initiative #OutInChurch, the Augustinian Monastery in Würzburg, the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ), the Network of Catholic Lesbians, the Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuality and the Church (HuK), and ‘Queer and Christian in the Diocese of Würzburg.’”

New Ways Ministry was the subject of a notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1999) and a statement by the US bishops (2011). Pope Francis, however, praised Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, in a handwritten letter, and subsequently met with Sister Gramick and other leaders of the group.

A priest of the Diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, who ministered in the United States was convicted in a Texas courtroom of three counts of sexual assault of adult women.

Father Anthony Odiong, who was arrested in Florida in 2024 for child pornography, also “fathered at least one child with another woman in Louisiana who had been under his spiritual direction,” according to the prosecution’s DNA evidence.

The case “highlights the Catholic Church’s ongoing challenges in addressing clergy sexual predation of adults in situations where they are vulnerable, particularly in relationships of pastoral care or spiritual guidance, while states such as Texas and Georgia have passed laws to criminalize such acts,” noted Gina Christian of OSV News.

The Washington Nationals fired its community relations director, Sean Hudson, after the release of a video in which he stated that the baseball team does not use pitcher Trevor Williams on social media because he is a “super Christian-Catholic” who spoke out against “drag queens who sometimes dressed up as nuns.”

“We were horrified by the comments that were made on the video,” said team business president Jason Sinnarajah. “The comments don’t reflect us as an organization, our values and who we are. We took action right away, and that individual is no longer employed by the team.”

The sole bishop in Estonia, where only 0.8% of people are Catholic, discussed a small but unprecedented rise in conversions this year.

Bishop Philippe Jourdan received 48 adults into the Church at Easter; 33 of them were unbaptized.

“We had never had so many,” Bishop Jourdan told the National Catholic Register. “Previously, catechumens were often in the 30-to-40 age bracket. Now, they are much more often in their 20s.”